Interpreting Japan; Central European Design and Architecture 1920-1940

Japonisme, the area of study of "taste for things Japanese", has been a growing field within art history over the past few decades. However, the field of Central European Japonisme has, thus far, been relatively under-researched. Although a few scholars have touched upon this phenomenon (Ken Tadashi Oshima, Claudia Delank, Marketa Hanova and Filip Suchomel) there is no overview covering the whole of Central Europe, which was a very active cultural network. This network had excellent connections with cultural centres in France, Russia, the USA, as well as other countries including Japan.

This study will investigate the nature of the transnational dialogue within artists' networks that connected Japan and Central Europe (mainly Germany, Czechoslovakia and Austria) in the interwar period. The transnational networks will be looked at from a three-fold perspective: personal networks of artists, networks of collectors; art institutions and other related networks with a special attention to study groups, esoteric circles and internationally active organisations. Japan will be explored as a location for transnational networking with the Japanese artists as active participants or agents in the process. Transnational theory as well as critical hermeneutics proved to be a useful methodology for appraising the dynamics of communication between members of transnational networks of the period under examination as well as for subsequent analysis of art works produced within this framework.

The process of mapping and exploring the gap in scholarship of Central European modernism and Japonisme uncovers narratives that will be discussed as case studies of individual artists, such as Bruno Taut, Bedrich Feuerstein or Tsuchiura Kameki and Nobuko. In conclusion the nature of digested interwar Japonisme in Central Europe as well as its role for contemporary modem Japanese art will be discussed.

This thesis is restricted by request of the author. Please contact UAL Research Online for more information.